Happiness means having opportunity – to get an education, to be an entrepreneur. What's more satisfying than having a big idea and turning it into a thriving business, knowing all the way that the harder you work, the more reward you can expect?

With this in mind, six years ago researchers at the Legatum Institute, a London-based nonpartisan think tank, set out to rank the happiest countries in the world. But because "happy" carries too much of a touchy-feely connotation, they call it "prosperity."

The objective of the institute's work (which is part of billionaire Christopher Chandler's Dubai-based Legatum Group) was to figure out what it is that makes happy countries happy – so that the less fortunate corners of the globe might have a benchmark to work toward.

The resulting Legatum Prosperity Index is based on a study of 142 countries comprising 96% of global population. Nations are analyzed and ranked on 89 indicators in eight categories, such as education, government and economics. The inputs for the index are both objective and subjective. It's not enough to just look at per capita GDP or unemployment rates. It also matters how hard people think it is to find jobs, or how convinced they are that hard work can bring success.

According to Legatum, the U.S. has slipped in the areas of governance, personal freedom, and most troubling, in entrepreneurship & opportunity. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, but Legatum notes "a decline in citizens' perception that working hard gets you ahead."

Socialism (the real thing, not the deformed abstract the media tries to sell) is great. But it's only effective in manageable communities. That's not a criticism to socialism rather than a jab against the US. THERE IS SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH.

Just as a physical structure can crush itself because of its own weight a country can become unstable to the point of no return if it grows too much.

You know much we as a people like to complain. Although we do have an almost unique gift to get genuinely excited by the smallest things, a hot drink, a chocolate offered from a box.

I know, I have to put myself in check sometimes when I start complaining about trivial things like the net misbehaving or the tv signal being screwy, I remind myself of places or situations I would hate to be in, such as having to walk 10 miles for a drink etc